How China’s Chang’e-5 lunar probe and 3 glass beads rewrote the moon’s geological past
New analysis of mission samples reveals volcanoes were still erupting on the moon when dinosaurs walked the Earth
The analysis by Chinese researchers not only challenges long-held assumptions about the moon’s geological evolution, but also adds to scientific debate about the thermal evolution of other planetary bodies and the question of how planets cool.
The findings were published in the peer-reviewed journal Science on Friday by Professor Li Qiuli and his team from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS).
It had generally been assumed that the moon cooled soon after it formed 4.5 billion years ago, and that its volcanic activity ended around 2.8 billion years ago. However, more recent observations have led planetary scientists to speculate that the moon’s volcanic activity had continued much longer.
In 2021, Li took part in an IGGCAS study of lunar soil samples retrieved by China’s Chang’e-5 mission earlier that year that showed the material – basalt clast – was 2 billion years old.
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China’s Chang’e 5 lunar lander finds water on the moon, but not as much as they hoped
In the new study, Li and his team performed a detailed analysis of glass beads found in the same lunar soil samples. The results pushed the timeline for the moon’s most recent volcanic activity up to just 120 million years ago.
